The Miseducation Of Marianne Dashwood: Jane Austen’s Politicization of Sentimental Discourse

<p>Examining the love triangle between Marianne Dashwood, Colonel Brandon, and John Willoughby provides new insight into how Austen decided to politicize the notion of the novel to demonstrate the inherent flaw in how sentimental novels to depicted romances bared a threat to women. I work against the conventional opposition of "good" versions of masculinity versus "poor" versions to posit a notion that instead, most masculinities are unstable and a detriment to the fairer sex. In this essay, I will argue that <em>Sense and Sensibility</em> disclose Austen's anxieties regarding sentimentalism because, from this perspective, Marianne Dashwood's character arc illustrates the author's unhappiness with the growing sway of sentimental beliefs on impressionable young women. This thoroughgoing re-evaluation of the love triangle challenges the standard readings of <em>Sense and Sensibility</em>.</p>

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Arts (M.A.)

Level thesis:degree_level

Thesis

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

English

Year dc:date.available

2020

Author dc:creator

• Frazelis, Kevin

Contributors dc:contributor

• Daniel Gustafson
• Keith Gandal
• Andras Kisery

• Masculinity
• Sentmentalism
• Politicization
• Literature in English, British Isles

Repository record dc:identifier

https://academicworks.cuny.edu/cc_etds_theses/811

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:academicworks.cuny.edu:cc_etds_theses-1887